While there may always be speculation, the timeline of the response to the Waterfall fire by city, state and federal agencies clearly shows a rapid, organized and extensive effort to control a blaze under extremely difficult conditions.
The report, which appeared in a special edition of Capital City Focus, the Carson City government's publication for residents, lays out minute by minute the arrival of firefighting crews, ground equipment and airplanes.
There may be debate over how the fire was fought, decisions made on the ground, the amount of resources dedicated to the fire and the tactics used. But the timeline can once and for all clear up several misperceptions about the early response to the fire.
To summarize some of the key elements in those first 10 hours:
-- Brush trucks and hand crews had responded within 35 minutes of the 2:57 a.m. alarm and were having great difficulty getting to the fire above the waterfall in Kings Canyon. Still, it was less than an hour before they were actually fighting the fire.
-- Two planes and a helicopter were working on the fire before 7 a.m.
-- Steep terrain and drought conditions were the chief obstacles to bringing the fire quickly under control.
-- Injuries to two firefighters, trapped on a rock outcropping in Kings Canyon about 11:30 a.m., caused a significant portion of the firefighting effort to be diverted to saving their lives.
-- A "major blow up" when winds kicked up about 1:15 p.m. gave the fire the momentum to race two directions at once - north into Ash Canyon, and south to C Hill - the worst-case scenario envisioned by fire officials who had studied the possible consequences on Carson City of just such a fire.
Second-guessing the fire response won't help, although we see little in their actions to warrant criticism. What will help Carson City and other fire departments in the future is a detailed, professional analysis of the response to determine what other options were available and where improvements could be made.
In addition, city, state and federal fire-suppression managers have an unfortunate classroom in front of them to study which of their precautionary efforts worked best. We can see the proof of defensible space, of wide firebreaks, of brush-clearing projects.
Sadly, we also see the proof among the ashes of 18 homes where such projects failed, were ignored, or were ultimately futile. Carson City will not soon forget the fury of the Waterfall fire, or the efforts of those who fought it.
